Protesters delay CRA meeting

By Sue Bolton

MELBOURNE — Around 150 angry workers, indigenous people and environmentalists delayed CRA's annual general meeting at the Victorian Arts Centre for over an hour on May 22.

Representatives from the CFMEU's mining and construction divisions; the communications union; the maritime union; the State Public Service Federation; the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance; and the metalworkers' union joined 40 workers from the Vickery mine and other CRA operations in the NSW Hunter Valley.

The workers were angry that while CRA refuses pay rises to workers who won't sign individual contracts, it increased its profit last year from $96 million to $223 million.

Protesters from Friends of the Earth and the Aboriginal community raised the issues of indigenous land rights in regard to CRA's Century Zinc mine in north Queensland, its proposed uranium mine in WA and its role in Bougainville and at its Freeport mine in West Papua.

The attendance at this AGM was significantly down on past years. There were so many interjections during the chairperson, John Uhrig's, report that he gagged debate.

From GLW issue 233